It is known to provide a container or package or pouch for holding a flowable material that has two opposed sheet portions that are sealed together around their perimeter regions to define a cavity within the pouch and between the unsealed portions of the opposed sheets. Such flexible pouches are commonly used for ketchup, mayonnaise, creams, gels, liquids and the like, and involve either two sheets of a flexible film or a fold over of a single sheet of flexible film, and adhesion or heat sealing along the perimeter edges or regions of the sheets so as to form a low cost small pouch containing the flowable material. The packages typically have an opening or tear off portion of flexible material to provide an opening for expulsion of the contents of the pouch. The dispensing end or portion of the container thus may be cut or torn to open or expose an opening for dispensing the material from the cavity of the container.
When opened, the container may be squeezed to force the flowable material within the container through the dispensing opening and onto the targeted object or surface. However, when a user squeezes the pouch, the material is forced in all directions within the pouch (typically a rectangular-shaped pouch) and not entirely toward and through the dispensing end or opening of the pouch. Thus, the user may have to selectively squeeze different regions of the pouch to attempt to force all of the material through the dispensing end or opening of the pouch. The problem is that finger pressure on the pouch drives some of the contents out of the opening, but typically forces or urges some of the flowable material in directions within the pouch other than toward the opening.
It is also known to provide a dispensing tube, where the end of the tube opposite the dispensing opening may be rolled up toward the dispensing opening to help force the material from within the tube through the dispensing opening of the tube. However, such tubes, typically as used for toothpaste and the like, are formed with a molded dispensing end attached to a flexible tube, and filled from the opposite end of the tube, whereby the end of the tube is sealed. Thus, such tubes may be costly to manufacture as compared to pouches formed from opposed sheet portions sealed together about their perimeter regions. Further, although such tubes allow a user to roll up the end of the tube toward the dispensing end, the rolling up of the tube is not controlled, and thus may not result in expulsion of all of the material within the tube.
Although it is known to provide such rollup tubes, such as for toothpaste or the like, it is difficult to roll up the low cost flexible pouches, since such pouches are relatively formless and various separate clips that may be used to assist in rolling or folding the pouches may add significantly to the cost and complexity of the economical pouches. Such additional costs are difficult to justify for such low cost flexible pouches, since such pouches are often used for samples of products, such as shaving gel or skin moisturizer, as well as single use applications of products, such as glue, grease, oil lubricant and/or the like.